Billions of blue blistering barnacles, isn't it staring us in the face?
Sometimes a thing's so obvious it's hard to see where the debate could
start. What debate can there be when the evidence is so overwhelmingly
one-way? A callow, androgynous blonde-quiffed youth in funny trousers and a
scarf moving into the country mansion of his best friend, a middle-aged
sailor? A sweet-faced lad devoted to a fluffy white toy terrier, whose other
closest pals are an inseparable couple of detectives in bowler hats, and
whose only serious female friend is an opera diva...
. . . And you're telling me Tintin isn't gay?
And Liberace was a red-blooded heterosexual. And Peter M... oops - steer clear
- burnt fingers once there already. But really, what next? Lawrence of
Arabia a ladies' man? Richard the Lionheart straight? And I suppose the
Village People were a band of off-duty police officers, YMCA was a
song about youth-hostelling, and Noddy and Big Ears are just good friends.
But I'd better make the case because, astonishingly (and though when I googled
“Tintin” and “gay” I got 526,000 references), there are still Tintin
aficionados who remain in denial about this.
Last year, as part of my BBC radio Great Lives series, my guest, the
international photojournalist Nick Danziger (who had nominated the life of
Tintin), and my expert Tintinologist, Michael Farr (author of Tintin: The
Complete Companion and numerous other Tintin-related works), stunned me
by not only denying hotly that their hero could have been gay, but even
insisting that the thought had never occurred to them. Don't you find,
though, that it's often the people closest to someone who never tumble to
it?
The argument I set out was straightforward. These are the facts: what we know
of Tintin's life:
Background and origins: A total mystery. Tintin never talks about his
parents or family, as though trying to block out the very existence of a
father or mother. As psychologists will confirm, this is common among young
gay men, some of whom find it hard to believe that they really are their
parents' child. The “changeling” syndrome is a well-known gay fantasy.
Other sources on background: His Belgian creator, Hergé, whose only and
enigmatic reference to Tintin's origins was to describe him as having
recently come out of the Boy Scouts.
Early career: On January 10, 1929, Tintin first appears, spreading
Catholic propaganda in the church newspaper Le Vingtième Siècle,
where in his comic strip he visits Russia (Tintin in the Land of the
Soviets) to describe the horrors of Bolshevism. Early entanglements with
High Church religion are, I fear, all too common among young gay men.
His journalism: Claiming to be a journalist, Tintin's only recorded
remark to his editor (on departing for Moscow) is “I'll send you some
postcards and vodka and caviar”. For a cub reporter on his first assignment,
a curious remark.
Subsequent career: Appearing sometimes as a reporter and sometimes as a
detective journalist, Tintin's baffling failure to show any evidence of
dispatching copy to a newspaper (except once) or any sense of deadlines in
his life has always puzzled his fans. It is possible to dismiss him as a
mere dilettante but more likely that he was some kind of spy. As the
remotest acquaintance with (for instance) British espionage will confirm,
secret intelligence has always attracted gay men. I myself applied for and
was offered a post in MI6.
Domestic circumstances: Tintin does not, in fact, move in with his
sailor-friend, Captain Haddock, until 1940 (The Crab With The
Golden Claws). As is so often the case with male homosexual couples, a
veil is drawn over how and where the couple met, but Tintin and his mincing
toy dog Snowy are invited to share Haddock's country home, Marlinspike Hall.
The relationship, however, is plainly two-way, for although when Haddock
first meets Tintin (before the sea captain's retirement) he is drinking
heavily and emotionally unstable, he is calmed over the years, settles down
and is finally ennobled by his younger friend's companionship when, in Tintin
in Tibet, he offers to lay down his life for him.
Other friends: Almost all male - as are their friends in turn. Indeed,
only Professor Calculus displays any attraction (though frequently confused)
towards the opposite sex. However, he never marries.
Thomson and Thompson: Tintin first meets the flamboyantly moustachioed
couple on a cruise in 1932 (Cigars of the Pharaoh), learning
to distinguish between them by their different moustaches. The Thomson and
Thompson life is a fancy-dress party: the pair love dressing up in exotic
costumes and are once mobbed in the street for their Chinese opera costumes (The
Blue Lotus). On other occasions they are seen (often with their
signature bowlers still on) in striped swimming costumes, and a variety of
folkloric garbs, always absurdly over-the-top. There is no evidence that
either has ever had an eye for women, let alone a girlfriend.
Rastapopoulos: Even Tintin's evil arch-enemy, a cigar-smoking movie
impresario and drug dealer (alias: Marquis di Gorgonzola) who is first
encountered at a banquet in Chicago (Tintin in America), is never
given the blonde on his arm or villain's moll that one would expect. He
remains solitary.
Snowy: The only unambiguously heterosexual male mammal in Tintin's
entire universe. We know that because of Snowy's tendency to be distracted
by lady dogs: a tendency in which he is consistently foiled by his master
and by Hergé's plot. Pity this dog, wretchedly straight and trapped in a
ghastly web of gay human males.
Bianca Castafiore: “The Milanese nightingale” is the only strong
recurring female character in Tintin's life, and his only identifiable
female friend. A fag-hag if ever there was one. With her plump neck and
beauty spot, this vain, self-dramatising diva with an ear-splitting voice is
genuinely fond of Tintin. Significantly, Bianca refuses to remember Captain
Haddock's name, calling him variously Maggot, Hammock and Havoc. Equally
significantly, Haddock detests the very sight of her. Perhaps most
significantly of all, Tintin's creator, Hergé, hated opera.
Peggy Alcazar: So apart from a diva fag-hag, the only other remotely
significant woman in Tintin's life is a curler-wearing virago. Peggy
Alcazar, the butch, bitchy, bullying, cigar-smoking, hard-drinking,
flame-haired wife of General Alcazar, may well have been lesbian.
Supporting cast: In fact I can count only eight figures identifiable as
women (about 2 per cent) from the complete list of some 350 characters among
whom Tintin moves in his life. There are no young women at all, and no
attractive women, in any of his adventures.
Oh please, what more could Hergé do to flag up the subtext? Well, you say, how
about a real affair of the heart, a proper gay relationship, rather than a
convenient domestic arrangement with an old sailor?
Step forward Chang Chong-Cheng, the Chinese boy whom Tintin meets in The
Blue Lotus when he rescues him from drowning, who later appears in his
dreams, and for whom he is prepared to lay down his life, and finally
rescues, in Tintin in Tibet. In this story Tintin hears of a plane crash and
dreams that his friend Chang was on board but has survived. He sets out on
an odyssey to Asia to find him.
Only three times in his life is Tintin seen to cry: most affectingly when he
is temporarily persuaded that his friend Chang has died. But Chang is alive,
as Tintin suspects when he finds Chang's teddy bear mislaid in the snow.
Chang has been trapped by the Abominable Snowman. Tintin rescues him. This,
written after Hergé had had a nervous breakdown and split from his wife, and
the story of which he was most proud, completes a change in Tintin's outlook
which begins in The Blue Lotus. Over time Tintin's attitude alters
from that of a Belgian chauvinist and narrow-minded young Catholic
adventure-seeker to being a tolerant, almost peace-loving,
teddy-bear-hugging seeker after truth. In The Blue Lotus he
sympathises with the lonely Yeti, now deprived of Chang's (enforced)
company, and even refuses to call the Snowman abominable. Tintin has seen
the folly of prejudice. In Hergé's last (unfinished) story, Tintin
and Alph-Art, the youth is even seen as a motorbiking peacenik, wearing
a CND badge on his helmet.
The time-sweep of these stories, 1929 to 1983, may have altered Tintin's
attitudes but never his appearance. He remains about 16 throughout. But
then, as we all know, gay men don't age as others do. He was probably
moisturising.
We'll never know. Tell yourself, if you like, that it was just that Tintin
hasn't yet met the right girl. Or maybe that it's only a stage he's going
through. But if you expect a Belgian Catholic born in 1907 to have unmasked
the hero of his blockbuster series of comic adventures as an out-gay
activist and homosexual icon, you expect too much. Hergé was no Andy Warhol
(Hergé's great admirer). But Snowy saw everything; Snowy knows all. And
Snowy never tells.
- - - -
Could it be true? (writes Hugo Rifkind)
Were Asterix and Obelix also gay?
Almost certainly not. True, the formidable Gallic warriors spent an awful lot
of time together - and true, Obelix did seem to sleep over at Asterix's
house quite a lot, despite having a nearby house of his own. Nonetheless,
they each had frequent and intense crushes on various long-limbed beauties
(Asterix principally with Panacea; Obelix with Mrs Geriatrix) and in one
later work (see Asterix and the Class Act), Obelix is also revealed
to have eventually sired a long line of warriors.
Was Dylan on drugs?
Probably. There was surely an unspoken pusher/addict dimension to the
relationship between Florence and Dougal vis-à-vis the provision of sugar
lumps, but Dylan, unquestionably, was the real stoner in The Magic
Roundabout. He was a hippy rabbit, he was always far too out of it to
understand anything, and he played the guitar. And, well, he was called
Dylan. In 1965. Carrots, indeed.
Was George from the Famous Five a lesbian?
Tricky. As one of the two girls in the Famous Five stories, George wore boy's
clothes, had boy's hair and wandered around saying “I want to be a boy”.
Still, any sort of subsequent homosexual or transgender adulthood seems
unlikely. For one thing, in the 2008 television series Famous 5: On the
Case the adult George is happily married to a car mechanic called Ravi.
For another, this is Enid Blyton we are talking about, and she was about as
socially progressive as Bernard Manning.
Was Aslan a white supremacist?
Totally. Or at least, C.S. Lewis was. Throughout the Chronicles of Narnia
Aslan's avowed enemies are the Calormemes of Calormen, a country that is in
the desert and full of people who wear turbans, baggy trousers and pointy
shoes. They have arranged marriages, put the symbol of the crescent on their
money, fight with scimitars and, in The Last Battle, are referred to
as “darkies”. Let's face it, they're not from Norway, are they?
Was there anything dodgy about Captain Pugwash?
Absolutely not, aside from the way that it put a rather favourable gloss on
the whole “pirate” thing. In fact, at the beginning of the 1990s, the
creator of Captain Pugwash, John Ryan, successfully sued two
newspapers that had fallen for the urban myth that there was. In truth there
was no Master Bates, no Seaman Staines, and the cabin boy was called Tom.
There was a character called Pirate Willy, mind, but that was probably an
oversight.
I don't think Tintin is supposed to have sexuality yet. He's pre-sexual, if you will. He's just a kid.
Anonymous, New York, USA
Snowy's real name in French is Milou, which is short for Marie-Louise.......
Heidi Solheim, La Ceiba, Honduras
Funnily enough, my wife pointed out the possibility a few weeks ago that Tintin could be gay - he does live in a world exclusively of men, after all. Lovely article - and a sense of humour failure in some of these comments...
Josh, London,
When I was reading and enjoying Tintin as a 10 year old his sexuality never entered my mind. If this occurs to you as a 40 year old adult then there is a problem with you. Why cannot a character be purely shown to have an adventurous side?
Allan, Melbourne, Australia
Anyone care about Tintin's sexuality? His success comes from the fact he's somewhat characterless: a blank canvas onto which we can project what we will.
Re: sympathy for the Yeti: Tintin in Tibet (duh), CND: Tintin and the Picaros, and Haddock doesn't get Marlinspike until Red Rackham's Treasure
Simon, Brighton,
I thought this article was good for a laugh but I think people need to take it less seriously. Goodness sake their childrens stories are we adults that concerned with it? Take a chill pill and have a laugh. Its all in good fun I suppose. Let everyone have their opinion.
M, U.S.,
Bah Tintin's story on Alph-Art finished that he did'nt die nor was he gay their is a huge rumor that he had married the girl in Alph-Art
Michal, Manchester, Britan
I think Scooby Doo is gay.
Shariq, London,
Tintin gay? It's soooo hip to be soooo open and tolerant and soooo up with it all. About half of all comic strip and children's story characters fit the outline given. Get real.
Ed Durivage, Naples, USA
The Yeti does not appear in THE BLUE LOTUS. You are thinking of TINTIN IN TIBET.
SoMG, NYC, USA
Is Tintin gay? Hi: Michael Farr is right, children who read Tintin don't think about it: (and if they know about homosexuality, they don't care.) Tintin is Tintin, just good stories we live with as children (I did it, in Geneva, Swizerland where Tintin was available in the 1950's).
Olivier, New Orleans,
I hope your tongue doesn't get stuck in your cheek.
Malcolm Harris, Wichita, USA
What about Rupert the Bear now there goes a real sexual suspect???
Peter, Littleborough, UK
Please don't tell me Velma is a lesbian - I've fancied her for years (those knee-socks are a real turn on). She doesn't have to be a lesbian to be capable and intelligent - most women are.
Steve, Yeovil, UK
Actually, it was Velma is SCOOBY-DOO. And we know she was a lesbian because she was capable and intelligent and never had to be rescued by Fred. Unlike Daphne.
Matt, Deltona, FL, USA
This whole article is a crack-up!!! So funny. Well done. Definitely worth the time to read and good humour for my lunchbreak.
Nathan, Sydney, Australia
If Matthew were to read Tintin in French (the original language used by Hergé), he would notice that the formal "vous" is used in dialogue between Tintin and Captaine Haddock. "Vous" would not be used between two people in an intimate relationship.
Genevieve, Toronto,
No wonder why he never returned my affections.
iris, New Orleans,
But Prince Caspian is a dusky fellow, and a Calorman; there are several examples of kind Calormen in the collected Narnia series. The frigid Queen in the first book is very much Scandinavian!
Tom Bergbusch, Gatineau, Canada
Utter nonsense.. comparing to 007, the editor is telling that tintin is a gay.. then who is 007.. over sexed.. ?? Tintin is seriously on his 'business'. Might be he got no concentration on getting married while his busy schedules. Quite a lot cartoon characters exists with similiar appearances..
rlal, bangalore, india
There is indeed a Gay subtext in some of Tintin stories, whether people are willing to acknowledge it or not. What's more, I believe Herge meant it to be a subtext, never explicitly stated. His reasons, we'll never know. But it's very strong in the Crab with The Golden Claws and Tintin in Tibet.
Don Charles, Kansas City, USA
A factual correction: Tintin is obviously at work as a reporter in many of the early stories, such as 'The Broken Ear' where he is seen taking short-hand with a reporters notepad, and 'The Shooting Star' where he represents the press in a National-Geographic-esque assignment to the Arctic.
Robert Sharp, London, UK
Could Tintin whistle or throw a ball? The answers will settle the question
MIke, Johannesburg, South Africa
Well, nope! Even though your "evidence" suggests that Tintin is gay, I believe your conclusion is false. Just because Herge never showed Tintin with a girlfriend, doesn't mean he was gay! The same applies to Haddock! Just because a person is single doesn't make them gay - it's a wrong assumption!
Aditya Simha, Pullman, USA
I think he's just French.
Sylvia, Naples, NY, USA
I never saw it! And now that you've pointed it out, I can only say, who cares! Tintin never came out, he is not able to confirm or deny nor is Herge. Please though, lets leave Tintin out of the pantheon of great gay litterature, for all to enjoy.
Dave, Vancouver,
The world is going crazy! Maybe the author is gay. Nothing wrong in it. But trying to make everyone gay.... well seems stupid !
Since the author, Herge, never showed Tintin to be gay, why come up with your theories and deliberately paint the world in gay colors??
sanjay, delhi, india
What a waste of time this article was, leave Tintin in peace. I despise the sexualization of everything especially done in this puerile "aren't we naughty!" tone. Grow up.
Barbara, Cincinnati, USA
As a child, i was in love with Tintin... Nice to learn i have my chance!
Totally funny article:)
Adrien, Zürich, Switzerland
I'm probably neither the first nor the last one to point this out, but due to rather harsh censorship issues in France, Hergé was virtually forced to reduce the number of women in his comics, so as not to be banned from that important market.
Not all the world is gay, you know!
Michiel, Leuven, Belgium
As a young gay I'd like to see more gay characters in cartoons, it matters for me to see that in cartoons some heroes are just like us.
ANYWAY, I don't see the point trying to figure out about Tintin's sexual orientation, there is no sign of sexuality or romance at all, and it's Hergé's intention.
Lewis, Lyon, France
At 53 I still read Tintin regularly in bed. There is nothing like it to flush your mind out of all life worries before falling asleep. I had a good laugh reading this article and all the comments about it. 'Common folks! Put a smile on your face. It's just entertainment!
Yvon, Gatineau, Canada
This demystification is so far-fetched, it verges on the ridicule! Tintin simply transcends gender, class, age, race and fashion. And let's not forget that he is also a cartoon character. Full stop.
Nathalie Hachet, Manchester, UK
Another un-outed childhood character is surely Mr. Benn. I remember him as a closeted single,middle-aged gay man, trapped in car-washing, lawn-mowing heterosexual suburbia. occasionally indulging his inner fantasies through dressing up, leaping in and out of closets but always keeping a memento.
Bryn Walters, London,
This is an utterly irrelevant idea.
An obvious point, although Mr Parris seems have forgotten it: he is not real. Therefore, he does not need to have any sexual preference whatsoever.
Tintin's adventures just do not touch upon sexuality, or love for that matter. Not everything is about sex, Matthew.
Govert, , Belgium
Oh hum, here we go again. As if this was a new theory... tedious is what it is.
No, Tintin is not gay. He is probably asexual, if anything. He is a hero for young children, and his asexuality is to ensure that both boys and girls can identify with Tintin. Is Winnie the Pooh gay also? Nope.
Bjorn Wahlberg, Stockholm, Sweden
Haha, I think it's funny.... but you know when the author is not trustworthy when he makes the worst comment: 'and though when I googled “Tintin” and “gay” I got 526,000 references'. If he'd knew just a little about search engines, they search tintin and gay separately. Try google with only TINTIN !
Emeric, Southampton,
'Don't you think this 'gay' need for acceptance is going too far?'
John Lonsdale
Don't you think this straight sense of humour failure is going too far? We don't need acceptance, just a good laugh every now and then. Cheers Matthew! PS, I know it's been said before, but Thelma in Scooby Doo
Sophie, Leeds,
Tintin goes to war on a tramp steamer, and meets its alcoholic captain Haddock, with whom he has some adventure. (The Crab with the Golden Claws). Herge decided that he was a good addition to the world of Tintin, so he became a permanent cast member.
Spike, NYC,
I knew Snowy for years and he never "minced". Grrrr.
Laura, London,
Check your sources, there was a Master Bates (but no Seaman Staines) in captain Pugwash.
Georgina, London, UK
He's fictional comic character for goodness sake. Don't you think this 'gay' need for acceptance is going too far?
John Lonsdale, Gateshead, UK
A bit sad but funny too: Le Figaro had this story on their online front page most of today, together with a rebuttal by a soi-disant psychiatrist who claimed that homosexuality was a choice of sexual preference. Only one person so far has realised that the article was meant to be funny.
Morgan, London, UK
I know a lot of gays, but none of them is such a good shot as Tin TIn !
robert, vancouver, bc
I was having this debate a while back. Anyway the most sensible thing that was said (not by me) was that Tintin is so elliptic that he can be read just about any way you like. You fill the gaps in his personality in yourself. So to me he'll always be gay.
Adam, Edinburgh,
A suggestive piece of journalism - with little proof to stand. The article however is completely irrelevant as this is a 21st century perception on a cartoon character that was 'created' in another era. Luckily Herge focused on the storytelling, not on Tintin's psychology.
Wim Dejonghe, Herentals, Belgium
In Hergé's last (unfinished) story, Tintin and Alph-Art, the youth is even seen as a motorbiking peacenik, wearing a CND badge on his helmet. _ actually this was tintin and the picaros
wally, Christchurch, NZ
Tinky Winky to Tintin: funny how those who built no relations with the opposite sex is considered gay. IMO, the book's account certainly don't make it (revealing Tintin's orientation) necessary. Herge just didn't bother to distract Tintin's thirst for adventure, which is a BIG advantage for readers!
Respati, Jakarta, Indonesia
I was a little simple in my early teens when I read the adventures of Tintin. I didn't know in any real sense what it meant to be gay. And actually, I don't think Tintin knew either. I guess we were both innocent.
Titina , London,
I can't answer for Tintin, but Richard the Lionheart was definitely straight.
Victoria Solt Dennis, Gillingham, Kent
In Herge's final adventure (Tintin and Alph-Art), Tintin meets an art gallery assistant called Martine. While Tintin's feelings towards her seem polite rather than romantic (although he offers her a lift home), Martine clearly enjoys his company ("I'm always very glad to see you", she tells him).
Edward, Aylesbury, UK
What an eye opener! Finally, finally, EVERYTHING falls into place! How could I read Tintin just for the sake of the stories and overlook the context -- this meta (!) message, which is always so much more important than plain facticity. Thank you, Mr. Parris, you have given me life's meaning back!
Wolfgang, Boulder, CO, USA
It is a convention of the genre that fictional detectives are asexual. Apart from Tintin, there is Poirot and Sherlock Holmes.
Trevor Harvey, London,
The author's tongue is clearly firmly in his cheek! Lighten up everyone, it's just banter.
Marcus, Cambridge, United Kingdom
Freud was wrong so this article is flawed, funny but flawed.
JH, Hobart, Tasmania
I reckon it ought to be made compulsory: that would sort out the men from the boys!
Alexander Davidson, Crawley, UK
Until it's established that Tintin has enjoyed what Cole Proter called "the urge to merge with a splurge" with another male (Harry Dickson peut-etre? ) he isn't gay IMO. The fact that his creator hated opera is a major blow to your gay Tintin theory. But it's most entertaining nonetheless.
David Ehrenstein, Los Angeles, Ca., USA
Don't sexualise Tintin, leave him as the asexual hero I have always unconsciously assumed him to be.
Ross Gilfoy, Bristol, UK
"Very funny, even if the tintinology isn't well researched."
Or the Asterixology. It's Obelix who is head over heals with Panacea, and neither men are interested in Mrs Gereatrix. Admit it, Matthew, you've not looked into this that hard, have you?
Ross, Lancaster,
Could you be straight if you were called Tintin?
peter, amsterdam, netherlands
Not having many female friends I'd say is evidence he's NOT gay.
Tony, Islington, London, UK
Very funny, even if the tintinology isn't well researched. Tintin and Haddock meet in The Crab With the Golden Claws, no secret about it. And the Yeti doesn't make an appearance in The Blue Lotus. No women, yes. But the themes - like the drug trade, Japanese imperialism - were topical and grown-up.
Luke, Geneva, Switzerland
Evidence is circumstantial. Tintin has the romantic outlook of his main intended readership, namely that of pre-pubescent boys. Boys form strong emotional bonds with other boys, hence the Chang episode, and have not yet discovered girls. By Rifkind's reasoning, most boys this age are gay...
Alex, London,
Agreed Jass!
Lighten up Folks.
Fun article!!
Ian, Johannesburg, RSA
You forgot to mention Biggles & Co, to which the answer is no in the case of Biggles (Marie), Ginger (Jeanette) and Algy (Consuelo), but the jury's out on Bertie. Happy (gay) hunting!
Andy, Welsh Marches,
Tin Tin is only 16 years old and by the looks of him, a late developer. His attraction to girls, I daresay, would come in later years.
For the time being, however, he probably prefers to hang around males who have the same mindset as him.
Henry Hoskins, Sydney, Australia
Pretty funny, but I don't get the whole 'Tintin is gay' obsession which some sad people take quite seriously; it's a comic book made for young boys, who are interested in adventure and haven't discovered girls yet.
As for Pugwash... well, he was obviously a roaring gay.
James, London,
Tintin after WW2 begat a comic zeekly magazine where about most heroes at the beginning were not allowed to have girlfriends. Before writing this article some research on the Castermann and Dargaud editors of Tintin and his copycats Spirou and Pilote would have helped to understand the why no woman.
prieur, grimsby, united kingdom
Oh lighten up fellow reviewers.. I for one, found this to be an entertaining read. A welcome distraction from my exam revision.
Jass, Herts, UK
I hare people of my mothers generation of 70+ saying things no 20 year old would say as non PC. Things have changed and moved on, who cares who slept with whom? Most 80 year old with still make remarks about immigrants not out of malice but it was normal in their day and age.
Eric, BRIGHTON, England
Sincere apology for thinking that the article has been written by Mathew Parris. Please excuse me for my error and my comment is directed to Hugo Rifkind,Tintin is a great character whose adventures still live in our hearts who are in their late 20's enjoying a perfect relationship with opposite sex
Hrishikesh Desai, Chippenham, UK
Hugo: Get a life. Tintin is only a cartoon character who stimulate the young thinking mind, with different adventures, also the pictures are so good that, I use to spend hours looking at the books before, I learned how to read, later I kept on reading the adventures of Tintin past my teen age years.
Charles Cristofini, London, England
i knew it!!!! he told me once while on assignment....
flavia pantoja, rio de janeiro, brasil
Cant you find a better use for your time?
fred, Milton, Canada